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Cyndi Sarnoff-Ross is a licensed psychotherapist with almost twenty years of clinical experience in the fields of clinical psychology and organizational management br br She has worked extensively with a wide variety of…
FAST FACTS
Loneliness is such a pervasive emotion among human beings that scientists have begun to look at the actual effects of loneliness on the brain. It has been determined that when people are socially isolated it affects not only how they behave, which seems obvious, but how their brains actually work. The very fact of being lonely has some control over the individual's response to external stimuli.
MRI scans of the brain were used in some studies and revealed that when someone reports being lonely their brain scans look different from those of non-lonely individuals when shown pictures of happy people. Parts of the brain become activated or remain dormant during these studies to help differentiate stimulus response. The part of the brain they are focused on is called the ventral straitum and is crucial to learning. It is activated by things like food and financial rewards and can even respond to positive social interactions and feelings of love.
Everyone has had some experience with the feeling of being lonely even if only fleeting, but anyone who has experienced profound loneliness knows how painful and often hopeless it can feel. What science has offered is actual evidence that these feelings can be detrimental to one's health and one report cites the effects as being as harmful as smoking to an individual's overall well being.
Since just around 1 in 5 Americans suffer from this type of loneliness it is clearly worth some exploration into both the causes and the effects of this emotion. Why is it that some people are able to reach out to others in the face of that feeling and thereby stave off the negative effects of social isolation while others retreat further into themselves and cut off the very thing that may alleviate the pain? We know some of this behavior is a function of depression and some of it is due to social skills or learned behavior.
No matter what the cause, it is critical that clinicians encourage their patients not to isolate themselves and to help people find ways, and learn skills to connect with others. This may mean getting their otherwise isolated patients into a group setting or helping them to compile a list, no matter how short, of people they can touch base with when they are feeling particularly lonely. While isolating is a symptom of many other mental health conditions, as the studies have shown, it can also be a cause on its own accord of mental and physical suffering.
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CONDITIONS AND COMMUNITIES:
Agoraphobia & Social Anxiety
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Anxiety
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Bereavement
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Breakups & Divorce
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Caring For Aging Parents
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Depression
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Depression - Teen
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Depression in Children
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Depression Supporters
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Family Issues
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Life After Divorce
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Loneliness
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Parenting Newborns & Infants (0-1)
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Post Partum Depression
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Pre-menstrual Syndrome (PMS)
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Seasonal Affective Disorder
Displaying comments 29-10 of 29
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After hearing your examples I am curious if you might be/have been in either genetics or infectious diseases. Do you work with anything related to Cystic Fibrosis. Believe it or not I am a 50 year old with CF and I have had about enough of it. I have read about VX 770 and VX 809. Were you in anyway connected to those studies and if so how could I get to be a participant in either study. I wish you well in your struggles and it sounds like you have enough automotive repair knowledge to at least not get cheated at the shop..
Good luck,
C
I don't recall claiming to be a scientist. Someone can use scientific method to diagnose car problems but that doesn't make them a mechanic. I am sure you that you picked up SOME people skills while becoming the fine scientist I have no doubt you are. I mean that sincerely and if you notice I ALSO asked for more information, just as you did but it seems we may have both drawn conclusions about this study without the prerequisite information needed to make those conclusions. My how unscientific we are.
I hope you have a better day,
C
My question to you... Does online communities and correspondence count as a healthy form of connecting with others to help eliminate isolation or is it a false sense of reality?
Second question... Social isolation doesn't necessarily mean being home bound?
Loneliness can also be in the mist of others in a social setting and still be socially Isolated from others. This type of isolation in the mist of others can be just as harmful if not worse... for whatever the reasons my be!?!
may not happen. It's so bad that it's unable to fix it's self. I've been sober now for three years and I'm 53 years old and this would make me happy. Mark E
Your response is well taken. I am a "pure" scientist as you so aptly put it. This is what causes my confusion. I face insurmountable odds with extreme pain. I have no support system, as my family is 3000 miles away. My wife is dead, and my friends here are unreliable to say the least. I choose not to be beaten. There is not science to explain my response. Perhaps it is my Pennsylvania Dutch roots. We are tougher than the rest of you. But there is no scientific study supporting this conclusion. No, I do not support the theory that there are different standards of proof in behavioral sciences. Science is science. This article sheds no light on the topic as a scientific study. When reviewing diagnostic images I am frequently called upon to make judgement calls. Is the image a result of the physiologic response or is it causing it? More importantly, are there things going on clouding my judgement. The coffee drinker has a greater chance of developing lung cancer. Is it the coffee or the fact that coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke? The fact of the matter is that behavior science deviates from the difficult questions because they have no answer. I will never enter the field of psycology because it, like all the behavioral sciences, is not science. Some people are so screwed up that nothing will help. Others just need a swift kick in the ass. Pitty for the weak is, I suppose, justified. But what cures has your profession showered upon them? None. This is not science. Are the SSRI's, MOI's or tricyclics curing anybody? Not even the neuro guys have a clue.
Thank you,
Charles Hicks Ed.S., LPC, CE
and feeling lonely through my marriage. People look and judge you from the outside where you be a person who has a nice & friendly personality and you feel that they avoid you. That your being left out and not include in certain situations. There are many times I feel I'm left in the corner . That you can be with a whole group of people and still feel alone. I was also abused as a child. Kids can be mean! I know this for when I was going to school I was made fun of and the names they called me whore no very nice. It wasn't easy dealing with the situation. In fact being made fun of made me feel even lonely. I don't have much of a family which makes it harder After having her in my life for 19 yrs., my cat got very sick and I had to put her to sleep. To this day I'm still hurting and I feel I just lost a big part of me. NO ONE UNDERSTOOD ME LIKE MY CAT DID! She was always here for me when I went through hard times . I FEEL MY PUSS CAT WAS THE CHILD I NEVER HAD!